(Motorsport-Total.com) – The Hungarian Grand Prix did not start well for Mercedes driver George Russell (once again): The Brit nearly stalled at the start and fell back to 19th place within the first meters of the race. However, the cause was not a driving error but a software problem.
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“It looks like he gave about ten percent throttle and the whole thing went up to maximum revs,” confirmed Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff shortly after the race on Sky. “He lifted off and then the revs dropped.”
“So I am really not happy about the too many mistakes that happened. That was the reason, and then he drove very well.” The Austrian made it clear that Russell was not to blame for the poor start and that instead a technical problem was present.
Indeed, Russell did lift his foot off the throttle and reduced the pedal position according to telemetry data from about 30 percent to under ten percent while the start lights were still on. But that was not the actual cause of the poor start, rather the consequence of another error.
Revs on Russell’s Mercedes go haywire
“I was on the throttle and holding the revs,” Russell himself reports. “And then, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine suddenly started to rev completely uncontrollably. And I reacted with my throttle pedal, but it had no effect at all. So the engine did not respond to the throttle.”
This year, drivers must hold a precise throttle position to build the required turbocharger boost pressure. They can monitor this directly on the steering wheel, as the start procedure includes a display that signals whether the engine speed is too high or too low and needs to be adjusted accordingly.
A look at Russell’s onboard footage already makes it clear that the course of the engine speed during the illumination of the five red lights was anything but linear. The telemetry data fully confirms this detail.
This is also proven by a comparison with his teammate Kimi Antonelli: At the beginning of the sequence, during the additional five-second preparation phase introduced this year, both drivers reached a throttle position of around 30 percent as in the normal procedure.
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While the throttle position and engine speed remained completely stable at about 12,300 rpm for the Italian, the situation was quite different for Russell. For him, the engine speed began to rise above 12,700 rpm and even briefly reached a peak value of 12,800 rpm, an exceptionally high value.
George Russell reduces throttle position, but …
That is exactly why Russell later explained he tried to modulate his throttle position by almost completely lifting his foot off the pedal. But even that was not enough to stabilize the situation. In fact, telemetry shows that the engine speed briefly dropped well below 12,000 rpm.
It then rose again to about 12,600 rpm, although Russell was giving less than ten percent throttle. This resulted in the second part of the problem: When the Brit wanted to start from his grid position, he held the throttle at only nine percent and could not open it further, while Antonelli was at 30 percent to generate the usual drive at the start.
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When Russell tried to leave his starting box, the engine suddenly lost a lot of revs—probably also because he started with less than ten percent throttle. While the engine speed at Antonelli at the moment of clutch engagement was about 5,800 rpm, it dropped to 4,500 rpm for Russell.
For this reason, the anti-stall function activated. This is an automatic control that prevents the engine from stalling by independently opening or closing the clutch as soon as the revs fall below a critical value. As a result, the Brit fell back to 19th place shortly after the start.
Mercedes apparently already struggled with a similar problem during the winter test in Bahrain. “I think it was something we had seen at some point during the preseason, but yes, I have no idea,” Russell is puzzled.
“Of course, it was a brand-new engine.” The Mercedes driver received a new power unit for the race after he had gone too aggressively over the curbs in qualifying on Saturday, probably causing a water leak. The unlucky streak for Russell continues.
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